Note: This article was originally published in The Technology Source (http://ts.mivu.org/) as: Stephen Downes "LearnScope Virtual Learning Community" The Technology Source, September/October 2002. Available online at http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=1034. The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher.

Australia has a long history in distance education and is a
world leader in online learning. Any number of Australian sites would be worthy
Spotlight Sites. This month's site,
LearnScope Virtual Learning Community (VLC), offers a flavor of the range and depth of e-learning and
e-community "down under."

Designed as part of the Australian Flexible
Learning Framework, LearnScope VLC is an online community for vocational,
education, and training (VET) practitioners. It promotes the development of
skills and capabilities in the application of new technologies for teaching and
learning. More than just a resource site, LearnScope VLC encourages the active
participation of members through the sharing of resources, discussion, and ideas.

Navigating the site can be a bit tricky for the uninitiated, though the site map
provides a quick navigation aid for the lost. The site is divided into four
major sectionsthe Community
Hub, GO
Learn, LearnScope
Projects, and the
Resource Centre. When you access the site you are taken directly to the
Community Hub, which contains the latest dynamic content and activity from
throughout the site; the specialized sections may be accessed via the menu near the top of
every page.

The Community Hub is an
active and busy section. In the large center column are posted new articles and
recent updates from ongoing discussions. Such discussions may focus around a
particular guest column (or "Expert
Spruik"), or they may address a topic drawn from the site's community
discussion area. LearnScope VLC members are encouraged to contribute
articles for publication, so there
is a wide variety of material available at any given time. Expert Spruik
guests, who are chosen for their appeal to the online learning community, generate
frequent comments.

In July, for example, the guest expert was Maish
Nichani from eLearningPost. Following an opening statement describing the history and function of his daily
e-mail newsletter, Maish led LearnScope VLC members on a wide-ranging discussion of
the role of weblogs (or blogs) in education, learning objects, and the future of
online e-learning. Because of the interplay (expert guests typically post daily
for a two-week period) members were able to learn much more from Nichani than
they would from an article or published interview.

The GO
Learn section is intended to provide learning resources and e-learning opportunities
for members. The center column summarizes the latest learning
resources, online events, and articles from that section. In small text a menu at the upper left
of the page provides easy access to featured games, articles, online events, and other learning aids. Of extra interest in this section is the
Road
Test page, where members are encouraged to try different instructional
technologies and share their experiences, and the Online
Courses page, where members can examine courses that use a variety of
approaches and tools in their instructional design.

The hundreds of work-based learning projects sponsored by LearnScope around
Australia are featured in the LearnScope
Projects
section of the site. As with previous pages, the most recent articles are listed
in the center column while an index of project categories (including
designations by state
and by project type) is available in small text at the upper left. A typical Show
and Tell project report featured in this section is the
Compiled Learning Experience Model (CLEM), introduced with a clear one-page
description and a link.

Finally, the site as a whole is supported with the comprehensive Resource
Centre. Learnscope VLC members and staff routinely list items of interest or
importance to teachers in the Australian VET sector; about 150 items are listed
here, varying from a report on educational radio in India to an item on distance
education learner assessment.

LearnScope VLC provides the features we have come to expect from a learning
community. There is an individual user login (free, and necessary if you want to
post comments in the discussion areas or publish material to the site), a search
function, and an e-mail
newsletter. The site also supports a text-based help desk and a list of
frequently
asked questions. But there are more personal touches as well: the
online poll, daily newsbytes, the virtual postcards sent by Flexible Learning
Leaders (another professional development project within the Australian Flexible
Learning Network), and the quote of the day.

There is a lot to LearnScope VLC and this makes navigation a challenge. For
example, there are three sets of menus spanning the major pages. This should be
cleaned up a bit and consolidated. The section titles aren't as clear as they
could be (though once you understand what an Expert Spruik is, everything else
appears simple). Though a laudable effort has been made to integrate
discussion, learning and resources, the links aren't always where you would
expect them and things don't always mesh tightly.

Commenting on the discussion board, in particular, is a challenge. The menu
system in the discussion area is murky at best; for example, if you want to
reply to a post you have to find the very small purple arrow tucked into the
message header (it doesn't appear unless you are logged in) instead of a more
prominent link near the bottom of the page as you would expect. The "Add
Comment" link that (sometimes) shows up in the "Accessories" panel to the right
doesn't work unless you are reading an article, not a discussion, and then if
you add a comment it does not show up on the discussion board, but instead shows
up at the bottom of the article.

That said, as LearnScope VLC continues to improve the site's usability (there have
already been several improvements), navigation issues should not deter you from
touring this site. Indeed, the unexpected turns sometimes produce the most
interesting material. And whatever difficulties are encountered are more than
compensated by the enjoyment of traveling through an active, engaged, and
knowledgeable e-learning community.